PANORAMA: Far Cry 2 let you blow everything up real good, but scope and scale made it special.

This was a strange year for video games. We were treated to one solid release after another, month after month, with no dry spells. There were no real stinkers, games either ineptly made or cynically conceived. Yet even the best releases seemed to have trouble getting out of their own way, offering scenes of awe and moments of frustration in equal measure. In the end, most of 2008's best games succeeded on the strength of their settings. From a bustling New York City to a barren, post-nuclear DC to the expansive plains of Africa, what gamers may end up remembering about this year isn't what we did but where we did it.

Rock Band 2 | MTV GamesSometimes, picking your favorite game of the year comes down to one simple question: which was the most fun to play? In this regard, Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii) had no peers. You can play it for five minutes or five hours, by yourself or in a room full of people. Newcomers with no sense of rhythm can enjoy themselves as much as the expert who plays with the guitar behind his head. And given Harmonix's commitment to releasing wide-ranging, high-quality downloadable content on a weekly schedule, this could be the last music game you'll ever need.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII | Square EnixWhen a developer mines its most historically popular franchises, there's always the danger that the result will rely too much on our warm and fuzzy memories and not enough on creating a compelling new experience. That wasn't the case with Crisis Core (PlayStation Portable), a prequel to Square's mega-popular Final Fantasy VII. It coupled a moving new storyline with lean, mean, role-playing mechanics and set them against familiar backdrops like Midgar and Nibelheim. Crisis Core was the total package — and on a handheld system, to boot!

Braid | MicrosoftDeveloped by the two-man team of designer Jonathan Blow and artist David Hellman, Braid (Xbox Live Arcade) was the kind of bold, risk-taking venture you'd never find from a major studio. Although it looked like a throwback to the era of the side-scrolling platformer, Braid's twisted timelines and mind-blowing temporal puzzles were more forward-thinking than any of the year's big-budget offerings. Add to that a haunting storyline that gradually revealed itself to be a meditation on memory and regret and you had a rarity: a video game with the courage to take itself seriously.

Far Cry 2 | UbisoftFar Cry 2 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC) succeeded as a pure shooter, with intense, prolonged gunfights and big action setpieces that let you blow everything up real good. But its scope and its sense of scale made it special. Its story, about various mercenaries playing both sides of a civil war against the middle, was delivered without irony or comic relief. And its panoramic African landscape was hypnotic and easy to lose yourself in. Rarely has a game's setting been as gorgeous, as seductive, or, in the end, as ruinous for everyone who set foot there.

THINKING MAN'S ACTION: TOP GAMES OF 2012 | December 19, 2012 At some point, it stopped being a trend and became the reality: the most interesting, thought-provoking games aren't mega-budget retail releases, but smaller downloadable titles.

BEYOND SHOOTERS | September 18, 2012 In an era of scripted set pieces and action sequences that are no more than glorified shooting galleries, Dishonored aims to give players the tools to author their own experiences.

REVIEW: DARKSIDERS II | September 04, 2012 "Gentlemen, I'm not going to mince words. THQ is in trouble. We're bleeding cash, and we need a hit game to save our ass. I want you to tell me what you're going to do to make Darksiders II that game."

REVIEW: ORCS MUST DIE! 2 | August 21, 2012 We're all happy to see more games that deal honestly and maturely with questions of life and death, and that question the player's role in perpetuating the cycle of violence.